Manage sustainability in tourism

Visitors care about the sustainability of their tourism experiences. They want to travel lightly and minimise the impact they have on the places they visit.

To be sustainable, you need to operate in a way that’s sensitive to the environment, culture and communities. 

A first step in your sustainability journey is to show you’re committed to being more sustainable.

You can do this by thinking about what’s important to you and putting that into a statement. Describe what you’re already doing, and what you want to achieve and how you’ll achieve it.

Display your statement somewhere that’s easy for visitors to find, such as:

• on your website
• in your promotional materials
• at the entry to your property.

Update your statement over time as your actions change.

Once you know where you want to be, you can work out how to get there.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. It’s important to understand your current performance and track your progress over time. This helps you focus on actions that make the most difference to your bottom line, your community and the planet.

To see how you’re performing you can measure:

• the resources you use
• your carbon footprint
• your social and economic impact.

For example, you could count:

• the water you use
• the amount of energy you draw from the grid or renewables
• the waste you send to landfill
• the volunteer hours you spend on local conservation efforts
• how much diesel or petrol your business vehicles use
• how many people you employ within 20 km of your business.

You can benchmark (compare your performance) against your own targets and also the performance of similar businesses. Seek advice on an appropriate benchmark from your accountant, local chamber of commerce or sustainability experts.

Climate change is making natural disasters more frequent, severe and costly.

Preparing your business can help you reduce the effects of a disaster.

A sustainability action plan helps you identify actions you can take to be more sustainable. It also helps you work out the value of different actions so you can choose ones that work for you.

As a starting point, think about what you can do to:

• reduce your energy, water and waste
• work with your local community
• build local culture, stories and heritage into the experiences you offer
• follow government laws and global commitments.

You need to follow national, state and local laws for sustainability.

Some of these laws may keep changing. For example, rules for the use of single-use plastics.

Make sure you stay up to date with the rules for your business.

Consider getting recognised for the steps you’re taking towards sustainability through certification or accredited training.

This helps you build credibility and trust with visitors and continue to improve through annual audits.

Different certification and accredited training programs focus on:

• sustainability standards specific to visitor economy businesses
• sustainable architecture and building design standards
• environmental and social governance and reporting standards
• international standards which cover a wide range of topics (such as quality standards, energy management systems and sustainable events)
• performance and greenhouse gas reporting standards.

Make sure the program you choose is trustworthy and credible.

Your state or regional tourism organisation can help connect you to Australian certifying organisations. Some Australian tourism industry associations also offer programs that help build business capability, including on sustainability.